The English poet, John Milton, in a poem entitled, "On His Blindness," says, "They also serve who only stand and wait." It is no stretch to think of the families of military service personnel standing, waiting, and serving. The service of military family members, their sacrifices and service on behalf of the nation however, is seldom seen and little acknowledged.
Having served a full military career as a U.S. Navy Chaplain, I have seen, served and cared for those who stand and wait for loved ones. I have seen spouses, children, parents, grand-parents, siblings and other family members standing on cold piers in the early morning hours to bid farewell to Sailors and Marines departing for a protracted deployment, and my own family has been among those waving teary-eyed goodbyes as our ship left port. The families of Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, Airmen and Coast Guardsmen have all stood and waited while their service members did the hard work of defending the nation and protecting the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
The stress and strain of the current operational tempo of our military service members has exacted a high cost from our military families. Multiple deployments into harm's way; regular cycles of changes in duty stations; and lack of outside employment opportunities have pushed military families to, and in some instances beyond, the breaking point.
The United States Army has created specific programs to deal with these stresses. Family Life Chaplains are given two years of study and 500 hours of counseling with families to train and equip them to help families deal constructively with the pressures of today's military life. Parenting skills, marriage enrichment and healthy family lifestyles are just some of the areas of emphasis provided under a $160 million program entitled, "Strong Bonds Program" sponsored by the Army Chief of Chaplains.
A current active duty military chaplain told me in a recent conversation, "There is nothing mysterious about caring for military families. All you have to do is love them." Another chaplain said, "Pastoral Care is not rocket science, but it is intentional." Military families are well cared for by military chaplains working side-by-side with health care professionals, social service experts, command sponsored Family Readiness Support Assistants and others.
The recently announced White House initiative, "Joining Forces," to honor military families and to provide much needed support in the areas of education, health, employment and business is a welcome expression of caring for military families and is being well received by them.
We would all do well to remember Milton's words as we think of our military families, "They also serve who only stand and wait."
This story is part of Military Families Week, an effort by HuffPost and AOL to put a spotlight on issues affecting America's families who serve. Find more at jobs.aol.com/militaryfamilies and aol.com.
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Holy cow! finally a story about America's finest....well done. Would love to see more.
These are troubling questions and I continue to struggle with an answer.
There's a huge assumption underneath this essay, that these soldiers are "defending the nation and protecting the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic." That is, fighting for our freedom'. But take a hard look at that assumption. If these soldiers are fighting for our freedom, then we should be losing freedoms when we lose wars. We lost the war in Korea, we lost in Cuba, we lost in Viet Nam, we lost in Nicaragua, Chile, Argentina. We lost Iraq II and the only reason we didn't lose Iraq I is because we pulled out before the battle that we would have lost. We are rapidly losing in Afghanistan. So with such an unbroken string of defeats, can any of you point to a single freedom that we have lost because we lose all of our wars? No? If not, then we must be fighting for something other than freedom.
Does asking this question make you angry? Does describing our unbroken string of defeats make you angry? Does the truth hurt?
At what point do soldiers and their families need to take responsibility for learning history?
I must also say to those family members that stood patiently by their soldiers during deployments and provided true support, thank you. YOU really do make a difference in the lives of soldiers overseas. While I was deployed to Kosovo, I was in contact with a very devouted wife who helped lead a family readiness group. She helped to provided a motherly like support for me too, and often we soldiers could act as a liason to relay back inportant releasible information to FRG contacts. The FRG network has improved vastly over the years, and its all volunteer family members that are in it to support the soldiers and help each other get through this time of need.
imperialism will bankrupt a nation as it is doing in america.
capitalism = imperialism and the citizens dont have a clue they are imperialists.
I absolutely agree. We need to have a good self-defense force and stop meddling in the rest of the world. For the record (predictable bagger attacks...), I'm a former Navy SWO, so I have nothing against the military per se.
Bring the men and woman home from Afghanistan and Iraq.
When a person who has been shown to be complicit in lies surrounding the friendly-fire death of ANY member of the armed forces is given such a position, it shows the deliberate ignorance of our government. McChrystal was the mouthpiece for the cover-up of the death of Pat Tillman and should never have been considered for appointment to this position.
A flag lapel pin and "Support the Troops" sign on a vehicle is not enough.
enough said, few will understand thoreau, very few.
As many times as I have done this almost none of them have asked if I served. I have to bring it up.
The serving member's family suffers probably more because the active duty guy is surrounded by a bunch of people going through the same crap. The spouses sometimes live on base, and sometimes are scattered all over the area near their base. Deployments can be for one week, one year or more depending on situations. Go to work one day and come home two years later. Try to stay out the body bag.
Try it, maybe you are desperate or masochistic enough to stick out ten or more years. I didn't stay that long.
OTOH, I've never seen a vet walk up to an American and say "thanks for paying your taxes"